Tag: Vile Verses

“The Procession” by Harriet Prescott Spofford is not only a poem about a Halloween parade, but it also shows there was a time when trick or treating was not always guaranteed for youngsters on Halloween. Google Books has plenty of other vintage poems as well. Pauline More Wetzel penned “October,” “The Yellow Leaves” and “Their …

Google Books is home to many a public domain poem. The image illustrating this article is from a poem called “Jack-o’-Lantern’s Story” and it is followed by another simply called “Halloween.” Please don’t confuse them with “Jack-O’-Lantern” by John Banister Tabb or “Halloween” by A.T. Frost. I’m also found of “Hallowe’en Happenings,” “A Halloween Memory” …

After doing two lengthy installments in the “Vile Verses” series, I had foolishly thought I had found all of the spooky poems I could ever find in my last entry. However, the recitation of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” in A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell made me realize there was still plenty of material out there. …

Since my last article about horror poetry turned out so well, I decided to revisit the subject. Wikisource has once again proven its usefulness to me thanks to its wealth of material. For example, I was able to find Christina Rossetti’s controversial “The Goblin Market,” James “B.V.” Thomson’s famous “The City of Dreadful Night,” Robert …

Whenever the phrase “horror fiction” is brought up, the mind invariable turns to stories. But what about poetry? It too is a form of fiction and a poem could just as easily have a horror theme instead of the expected ode to nature or romance. After all, one of the greatest literary works in the …